Two years ago I was approached by a board member of the Cultured Pearl Association of America about a project that they had in mind. They wanted to send a film crew around the world, shooting pearl farms in China, Japan, Fiji, the Philippines and French Polynesia. I was asked to accompany the team to be the guide/interpreter/pearl expert.

My first thought was that it would be impossible to leave my company for the full month it would take to film in so many different locations, but after careful consideration I decided that not only should I go along, I had to go along.

As part of the deal, I have full rights to all the film shot on the trip and now have hard drives with hours upon hours of footage shot in some of the most exotic locations on the planet. To date, I’ve only used the footage from French Polynesia to produce the video below, but more videos are coming.

Last year we decided to try something new and a bit on the unique side by matching up natural-color, dark akoya with Tahitian pearls in a size and color graduation. The resulting necklaces and bracelets are insanely beautiful!

We launched this collection just this past week and have sold out of nearly everything prepared before the promotion. The most popular piece of all has been the Ombré Bracelet, which we now have about a dozen people on a waiting list for. If you are on that list, or would like to be on that list, not to worry! We are creating new pieces as fast as we can. Matching these up is a lot more difficult than a simple white strand or a normal Tahitian. The graduation is so intricate, and it really has to be perfect.

We are already thinking of new ways to expand the Ombré Collection, possibly with golden akoya pearls or maybe even South Sea pearls. More to come!

This pearl ring has quite a story. Jeremy purchased some loose freshwater pearls during one of his visits to China. He had never seen such a strong metallic luster with color-shifting overtones before.

He took the pearls to Guaymas, Mexico to show them to Pearl-Guide members; Caitlin, Blaire and Douglas. He left for Mexico few days earlier than I and by the time I arrived the lot was gone. We searched the hotel room but no luck – someone had stolen the bag of pearls. Caitlin and Blaire were heart broken. They had each picked a pearl for themselves but selected the most amazing color shifting metallic pearl for me, telling Jeremy that he was not allowed to give that pearl away to anyone but me.

We went home few days after empty handed. But a few weeks later, Douglas who runs the Sea of Cortez pearl farm in Guaymas, contacted Jeremy. He got a bag full of pearls that looked exactly like the lot that was lost from a girl who claimed that a American gave them at the hotel where she worked. Knowing what really happened, Douglas took the pearls back from her. I was finally able to meet the special pearl.

The pearl is oval with perfectly smooth surface and the most amazing part about this pearl is the shifting of the colors. In a dimly lit room, the pearl looks gold. In a natural light it is actually pink to green. The luster is so sharp that you can see your reflection on the pearl.

A couple of months later, Jeremy and I were off on vacation and had an eight hour layover in Paris on our way to Istanbul. Jeremy took me to the Eiffel tower. It was a sizzling hot summer day with no air conditioner in the subway and huge line of tourists waiting for the elevator to go to the top of the tower. We didn’t have a whole lot of time and started climbing the stairs. We were both drenched with sweat when we got midway when we finally took the elevator to the top.

As I watched the breath taking view of Paris, he took the ring out from his pocket and placed the ring on my finger. It was such a romantic moment and I was so surprised by the ring. I later found out that my very good friend and our custom jeweler Takayas Mizuno created the ring for us. Now this pearl ring accompanies everywhere I travel.